If you’re searching for “instant loans for fair credit”, chances are you’re worried that your credit score isn’t too flash.
There’s a perception that poor or even fair credit scores can limit your chances of getting a personal loan. Some fair-credit borrowers try to hide their credit score from lenders because they’re concerned about their chances of approval.
The good news is you can get loans for fair credit scores with responsible lenders, so keep reading to learn about how to get one.
The lowdown on credit scores
Your credit score is basically a number that shows how good you are at handling money, based on your past credit activities.
If you’ve ever borrowed money in New Zealand—whether it’s for a car, a credit card, or even paying a power bill—you’ve got a credit score.
Credit agencies crunch the numbers using details from your financial history, like how well you’ve paid off loans, used credit cards, and settled bills.
If your score is on the lower side, it usually means you’ve had a tough time keeping up with payments or you’ve got a lot of debt compared to how much you earn. This can make it a bit tricky to get loans or credit cards.
Credit scores range from 0 to 1000, with 0 being the worst possible score, and 1000 being the best.
According to Credit Simple, most people’s credit score falls between 300 and 850. A score of less than 300 is considered bad.
A fair credit score is between 580 and 669, while a “good” credit score is between 670 and 739.
How your credit score affects interest rates
Generally, bad credit scores attract higher interest rates on loans. This is because from a lender’s perspective, a borrower with a poor credit score is more risky to lend to.
But what if your credit score is fair rather than straight-up bad?
A fair credit score reflects a history of things like missed payments, maxing out credit cards, or other credit issues, but it’s also a sign of potential.
When assessing personal loans for fair credit, loan providers recognise that these borrowers are not outright risky; instead, they may have faced financial challenges that temporarily affected their score.
Understanding where you stand can help you make more informed borrowing decisions.
To find out your credit score, contact one of the three agencies in New Zealand that provide credit reports: Centrix, Equifax and illion.
Improving your credit score
The great thing about credit scores is they’re not fixed. You can improve them!
When you take out credit and make payments on time, or pay bills on time, your credit score goes up.
Even if your credit score is poor, if you can make regular loan payments this will really help your situation.
Finding the right lender
If your credit score is fair or you’d like to improve it, it’s important to find a lender that wants to help you succeed.
Some lenders are motivated mainly by profit, but at Loan Direct we genuinely care about our customers and want to see them achieve their goals.
We work with people with all credit scores – good and bad – and every day we help people with poor credit history find a great deal.
How do we do this?
We start by listening to our customers and understanding their financial situation. If they have a reasonable explanation for their financial difficulties and enough regular income to cover the loan repayments, there’s a good chance we’ll be able to get them approval.
We understand that people make mistakes, and we believe that people deserve a second chance. That’s why we go in to bat for people with bad credit history.
How much can you borrow?
With Loan Direct, our unsecured loans offer limits of up to $75,000.
The benefit of an unsecured loan is you don’t have to provide any collateral to secure against the loan.
Sometimes we help people with fair credit history get secured loans instead, which helps offset some of the risk to the lender.
Our secured loans allow you to potentially borrow more, up to $150,000.
Find out how much you could borrow with our free loan calculator.
The advantage of using a loan broker
Loan Direct is a Finance Broker and our job is to find the best affordable loans for you based on your financial situation.
We use our network of low-cost lenders to find our customers the best deal with competitive interest rates.
With just one online application, you can have access to multiple lenders. Our application takes just a couple of minutes, and more lenders means more chances of approval!
This is also important because making multiple loan applications in a short period of time can negatively impact your credit score. With Loan Direct, you only have to fill out one short online application form.
We can usually get approval within 1-2 hours*, and loan payout the same day or next, depending on the time of day you apply.
*Subject to responsible lending criteria.
Personalised solutions
Loan Direct provides access to lending that’s tailored to you.
- Personal loans
- Unsecured car loans
- Debt consolidation loans
- Wedding loans
- Home renovation loans
- Fast cash loans
We offer personalised rates tailored to your situation, so you always get the best deal for you.
That’s our advantage compared with traditional lenders, like banks: we have the ability to offer personalised solutions, not a one-size-fits-all approach that may leave you paying more than you need to.
We also offer flexible loan terms and other loan options to make monthly repayments more affordable. With a minimum loan term of 6 months and a maximum loan term of 7 years, we can structure your loan to ensure you can make the monthly repayments comfortably.
Get in touch with our friendly team today to find out more about how we can help.
*Subject to responsible lending criteria.
